Efficient network management generally requires the ability to segregate different types of network traffic, with higher priority traffic being processed differently than lower priority traffic. To this end, various communication protocols currently implemented within Ethernet-based networks define Layer 2 priority fields that specify the quality of service (QoS) level to which a packet is entitled, and therefore dictate the manner in which the packet should be processed. As cloud computing becomes more prevalent, however, data center networks are typically required to support a rapidly increasing number of tenants, with a corresponding increase in the number of traffic types. As a result, efficient network management of modern data centers may require the ability to segregate a larger number of different traffic types.